Semi-presidentialism : sub-types and democratic performance / Robert Elgie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Elgie, Robert.

Series:

Comparative politics (Oxford University Press)

Comparative Politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Semi-presidential system.

Presidents.

Democracy.

Cabinet system.

Legislative power.

Physical Description:

ix, 206 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, UK ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Summary:

Comparative Politics is a series for students, teachers, and researchers of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterized by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more informative visit: www.ecprnet.eu

The Comparative Politics Series is edited by Professor David M. Farrell, School of Politics and Internation Relations, University College Dublin; Kenneth Carty, Professor of Political Science, University of British Columbia; and Professor Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Institute of Political Science, Philipps University, Marburg.

This book examines the relationship between semi-presidentialism and democratic performance. Semi-presidentialism-where a constitution provides for both a directly elected president, a prime minister, and a cabinet responsible to the legislature-has become the regime type of choice for new democracies. There are now over fifty countries in the world with a semi-presidential constitution and the vast majority of these countries have chosen this form of government since the early 1990s. This book operationlizes Shugart and Carey's distinction between president-parliamentarism-where the prime minister is responsible to both the legislature and to the directly elected president-and premier-presidentialism, where the prime minister is responsible to the legislature along. The book shows that, all else equal, the president-parlimentary sub-type is more likely to be associated with a poorer democratic performance that its premier-presidential counterpart. The evidence is based on a mixed-method approach, including large-n comparative statistical studies of all semi-presidential democracies since 1919, as well as in-depth case studies. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Perils of Semi-Presidentialism? 1

2 Variation Within Semi-Presidentialism 19

3 Varieties of Semi-Presidentialism and Democratic Survival 43

4 Varieties of Semi-Presidentialism and the Performance of Democracy 69

5 Semi-Presidentialism and Democratic Survival and Collapse - Country Narratives 95

6 The Performance of Democracy under Semi-Presidentialism - Country Narratives 121

7 Premier-Presidentialism, President-Parliamentarism, and Democratic Performance: Indicative Case Studies 146

8 Conclusion 175

Bibliography 190.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199585984

0199585989

OCLC:

713182510

Online:

Publisher description

Contributor biographical information